THE LONELY STAR (Contd. from BD birthday party)

[Child of the 7th Age]

As the morning sun climbed high in the sky, Nitir walked slowly to the home of Maura Took. She was careful to slip out without waking Bird who still dozed fitfully on her perch. By the time she arrived at the burrow, Lindo and Maura were already speaking with Ancalimon. The cloaked grey figure was explaining to Lindo about the journey and mission of the Star. He said it had been chosen to help bring hobbits to safety, not only in this age but others as well. And, if those on the ship carried out their appointed task, there would be one more sliver of light retrieved from the Silmarils which would help lead the way.

He then went on to talk of the future of Maura's people. "If all goes well," he continued, "the Orcs will be gone, and the children will be back with their own families. There will be a community to build, and children who need teaching. And there will be lore to be learned and preserved. That, also, is a good and worthy task."

"Maura has told me how you've discovered much about yourself and your people in recent months. Now you are being given a rare gift, Lindo. The gift is that of choosing. There is no right or wrong choice here, only that which feels right to you and your heart. I want you to think about this, since many of the things I've said weren't known to you before. Go and take a walk with that pony, and talk with him. Then, come let me know later today."

"And," Ancalimon looked up and winked, "I do believe that, whatever you choose, that pony has decided to come along with you."

Nitir smiled, and then spoke to Lindo before he left, "And I'm sorry. I mean Azra and I are sorry, if we had to deceive or mislead you before. But there were too many lives hanging on a thread to say anything of my friends or why we'd come."

Lindo left the house and promised to think carefully about his choice before he spoke with the peddler again.

"But we still have two to go," Ancalimon mused, as he looked over at the man and woman before him, sitting with their fingers intertwined. He stopped and gazed at Nitir for a long time. Then he shook his head and said with a smile that held both affection and sadness, "So our little Andreth is here, the hobbit who battles for her people with all the words she can muster."

"Child, I need you to keep battling with those words, not here, but back on the Lonely Star with your friends, and you, Maura, must lead your people so they can survive the long years ahead."

A single tear dropped down from Child's eye to the table below. She looked up to Ancalimon with sorrow in her voice, "This seems so hard. Is there no other way? For Lindo, you said there would be a choice. Why do we have no choice at all?"

Ancalimon shook his head, "I can not say. I do not do all the choosing, and some things exist that can not be changed. At least, they should not be changed unless you wish to bring darkness down on our heads. And I know you enough to be sure that neither of you could live with that."

Then he turned to Child, "Back when this matter of hobbits was written into the Music, it was said there could be no rescue of the land hobbits or the sea hobbits unless they themselves stepped forward and took the task on their heads. Your friend Piosenniel understood that, and the Lady Idril, and, in her own way, even your dragon Angara. That is why they left you to figure out so much on your own, to struggle with the riddles and the maps, things they might have accomplished themselves in the blink of an eyelid."

Child looked up to try one last time. "But what of Kali and Rose and Daisy? They too are hobbits. Can't they do these things?"

"No, Child," he responded softly. "For you were the only adult hobbit on the Star who was there from the beginning. Your young companions are not even in their tweens. And, in every adventure, in every choosing in which hobbits are involved, there must always be one who is older."

Child's memories of the future were slowly returning again. Much was still blurry, but the pictures of the people involved were beginning to come back. And, into her mind, crept an image of Bilbo and Frodo

"Yes, Child, that is right. Perhaps your own task is not so grand as you would like, but still it is important. For without the Star, there will be no hobbits, in this time or any other."

Maura had sat in silence throughout this entire exchange. He now asked, "But may Nitir never return here, perhaps after her task is completed?"

Ancalimon shook his head, "There has been too much pulling of the threads which hold the veil of time together. What has happened here may not happen again."

"Then," said Maura, "we will never see each other for we are not like the Elves who can sail off to the Blessed Lands after their life in Middle-earth is done. This will be a true goodbye."

Ancalimon lowered his voice and looked at Maura. He had known him so long. He had seen his grief when his wife had been murdered by the Orcs, and there had been long years of silence and pain and anger. He wished he could have said something different, offered some way for these two to find peace together. But only one way appeared to him.

"Within Arda, yes. This is goodbye," Ancalimon answered truthfully. "But Maura, after all you know and have been taught, do you not believe in that which lies beyond Arda?"

The small, grey haired hobbit sighed, "I do not know, but I hope. I hope that there is light which goes beyond memory."

Ancalimon shook his head, "And I too hope. And the three of us, you and Child and even myself, must find something in that estel which will lead us through these harsh times. For I am quite certain that, in what lies beyond memory, you two will find each other again."

The two hobbits looked at each other and nodded in acceptance. Slowly, their intertwined fingers pulled apart.

"Now, however," Anclaimon spoke. "We need to find that crazy bird of Child's to speak with, and also see if Rose brings us a report later this day. Meanwhile, Maura, I would urge you to have the hobbits pack up what belongings they have and prepare for another march. And this one will lead us outside Morogoth's curtain of time to the real world that lays beyond. Do not be alarmed if you find many more years have passed than the months you can actually remember."

Then Ancalimon hugged each of the hobbits, and promised they would see him again, though each in their own time and place. And Maura and Child went off on their own to a secret place by the river, and spoke words of comfort and grieving to each other. Both promised to be true in the days and years to come to the vision they had been given of the light. And, in token of that, they gave each other a simple chain to wear about the neck, with a single small stone set in place.

[ August 21, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]